I crossposted this from bionet.general because I think that some readers
of our newsgroup may have ideas what could be done to help the patient.
Please direct your reply to caiqq at mccux0.mech.pku.edu.cn
Thanks for your kind attention.
--
Hi,
This is Peking University in China, a place of those dreams of
freedom and democracy. However, a young, 21-year old student
has become very sick and is dying. The illness is very rare. Though
they have tried, doctors at the best hospitals in Beijing cannot cure
her; many do not even know what illness it is. So now we are asking
the world -- can somebody help us?
Here is a description of the illness:
The young woman -- her name is Zhu Ling -- is a student in
the chemistry department. On DEC. 5, 1994, Zhu Ling felt sick in
her stomach. Three days later, her hair began to fall out and within
two days she was completely bald. She entered the hospital, but the
doctors could not find the season for her illness. However,
after she was in the hospital for a month, she began to feel better
and her hair grew back. Zhu Ling went back to school in February,
but in March her legs began to ache severely, and she felt dizzy.
She entered XieHe(Harmony) Hospital - the most famous hospital in China.
On March 15, her symptoms worsened. She began facial paralysis, central
muscle of eye's paralysis, self-controlled respiration disappeared. So `
she was put on a respirator.
The doctors did many tests for many diseases including anti-
H2V, spinal cord puncture, NMR, immune system, chemical drug
intoxication ANA,ENA,DSONA,ZG and Lyme, but all were
negative, except for Lyme disease(ZGM(+)).
The doctors now think that it might be acute disseminated
encephalomyelitis(ADEM) or lupus erythematosus(LE), but the
data from the tests did not support this conclusion.
The doctors are now treating Zhu Ling with broad-spectrum
antibiotic of cephalosporin, anti-virus drug, hormone, immun-
oadjuvent, gamma globulin intravenous injection and have given
her plasma exchange(PE) of 10,000 CCs. But Zhu Ling has not
responded -- she reamers in a vegetative state, sustained by life
support.
If anyone has heard of patients with similar symptoms -- or
have any ideas as to what this illness could be, please contact us.
We are Zhu Ling's friends and we are disparate to help her.
This is the first time that Chinese try to find help from
Internet, please send back E-mail to us. We will send more crystal
description of her illness to you.
our email is: caiqq at mccux0.mech.pku.edu.cn
Thank you very much
Peking University
April 10th, 1995
==========================================================================
Sincerely,
Martin Latterich
BIONET.MICROBIOLOGY Discussion Leader
micro at mendel.berkeley.edu